When Pride Slips In

My family has been going through a trial and persecution lately. The kind that could easily be made into a mini-series. When these trials began, we made a pact, we wouldn’t talk to anyone on the ‘outside’ about what was going on; and that is what we did, we kept it amongst ourselves as much as possible. I won’t lie, I was/am very proud of my family for behaving themselves in a Godly manner during and over this situation, it would have been way too easy to gossip about this one, but we didn’t. However, somewhere along the way, I let pride slip in.
I honestly didn’t realize it had happened, in fact, during this whole ordeal, I kept praying to the Lord that pride wouldn’t come in and if it did, that He would show me, immediately, and He did! My five-year-old granddaughter and I have Bible study time in the mornings while waiting for her school to open, a couple of mornings ago I was reading Proverbs chapter 15 out-loud to her and bam! There it was, I had to go back re-read it a couple of times to myself, and I marked it in my Bible so I wouldn’t forget when I got home, Proverbs 15:25, “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud” … I couldn’t get home fast enough. I went in and sat down at the kitchen table and threw my Bible open and re-read the verse again, then I grabbed my Scripture writing notebook and began writing out the verse and repenting, while writing out this verse suddenly my mind was flooded with other Scriptures about pride and how the Lord feels about it.
God hates pride.
In Deuteronomy 28:63, God warned that if people refused to obey Him they will be plucked from off the land. I kept asking the Lord, where Lord, where and when was I prideful in this situation, and He showed me, at the last, at the close of the situation, pride began to creep in, THIS was my warning….Ohhhh my Lord NO! NO! NO!
I got more specific with my repentance, and He brought more Scripture to mind, Proverbs 6:16-19, which says, “These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination to Him -
1. A Proud Look – reflects a proud heart that God will judge {Proverbs 21:4, a high look and a proud heart IS sin} – BOOM – I had had a proud look – physically and spiritually. I won’t lie, judge if you will, God already knows, but, I did smile physically at home, and in my heart, away from home, when all of this came to an end.
2. A Lying Tongue – {Proverb 12:19, “The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”}, lies will be refuted and the liar punished. {Proverbs 12:22, “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.”}. The lie in this situation was at the close of it, when my heart was no longer in step with God’s and was fleshly, with pride.
3. Hands that Shed Innocent Blood – you can experience an early death due to your sins; {Exodus 20:13, “Thou shalt not kill”} {Matthew 5:22, “But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgement”}. While I didn’t physically kill anyone, my pride could have easily spiritually killed someone had it continued, by this time I had no cause to be angry at the offending party because I had confessed forgiveness for what had been done – but my heart did not reflect that when this came to an end and I was sitting there spiritually ‘smiling’, thus, spiritually I was shedding innocent blood.
4. A Heart that Deviseth Wicked Imaginations – {Proverbs 1:31, “Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices”} {Galatians 6:7-8a, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;”}{II Corinthians 9:6, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly;”} Throughout this situation I had hoped for a particular end to it all, part of which did happen, so, while I prayed for them and their family, I was also devising wicked imaginations against them, without realizing it.
5. Feet that be Swift in Running to Mischief – {Genesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”} Honestly, when everything was about to come to an end, I couldn’t wait until the last meeting, when it would all end, while this in-itself may not have been a sin, my heart smiling about what I thought and hoped would happen, was sin.
6. A False Witness that Speaketh Lies – {Proverbs 12:17b – 18a, “but a false witness deceit. There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword:”}{Proverbs 25:18, “A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.”}{Psalm 5:9, “For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.”}{Proverbs 19:9, “A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.”} I am so very thankful to God that, as far as I know, my family held their tongue from talking about this among other people. We did talk about it among ourselves, but we did not run around gossiping to others about this situation.
7. He that Soweth Discord Among Brethren – Creates distrust that culminates in alienation and conflict. {Romans 16:17-18, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. {James 4:11a, “Speak not evil one of another, brethren”}{Revelation 21:8, “8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”} {Colossians 4:5-6 “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”} THIS is the main reason we did not talk to other people about this situation; we did not want to influence anyone’s feelings about anyone else.
The whole time we were going through this, I worked really hard to behave in ways that were pleasing to God, and to bring honor and glory to God in this. I was worried about pride coming in, and it did, but I am so very thankful that my God is a forgiving God, who knows I am flesh and that I am not perfect and make mistakes. While I am happy that we all responded to this situation better then we have past situations, I am disappointed in myself that pride was able to slip in and other sins that come along with it, thank You Lord, for showing me before even more damage could be done.
Pride comes before the fall; it is nasty, it can ruin your testimony, it has NO place with God’s children or followers of Christ.
Jenn